securities litigation trends

One interesting thing about the most recently filed securities class action lawsuits is what they have in common – that is, that while the companies sued are drawn from a surprising diversity of industries, none of them are in the financial services sector. The absence of new securities suits against financially related companies is quite

By now, it is well-established that the recent heightened securities lawsuit filing activity has been largely concentrated in the financial sector. However, litigation involving companies in other sectors has by no means gone away. In addition, recent filings suggest that while the plaintiffs’ lawyers have been concentrating on the financial sector, a backlog of actions

On March 11, 2009, Cornerstone Research released its report of 2008 securities lawsuit settlements entitled "Securities Class Action Settlements: 2008 Review and Analysis" (here). Cornerstone previously released its review of 2008 securities class action filings, which can be found here. Among other things, the newly released Cornerstone Report concludes that "the value

On February 23, 2009, Advisen released its Report of 2008 securities litigation entitled "Securities Litigation in 2008: Implications for the D&O Market in 2009 and Beyond" (here, $ required). The Advisen Report’s numerical securities litigation analysis is directionally consistent with prior reports of the 2008 lawsuits, although the Report also contributes its own

The numbers are unambiguous – there were more securities lawsuits filed in the second half of 2008 than there were in the first half. Nevertheless commentators and observers continue to repeat the mistaken conclusion that there were fewer lawsuits filed in the second half, and even to try to discern some significance from a decline

As other commentators previously have noted (refer here), the pace of securities lawsuit filings increased significantly in 2008 compared to recent years. According to my tally, there were 224 new securities lawsuits filed in 2008. The 2008 total represents a 30% increase over the 172 securities lawsuits filed in 2007, and an 88% increase